Collegiality can be a dirty word in higher education -- particularly
in regard to tenure or promotion, where it frequently becomes a catchall
for likability and other subjective qualities that some faculty
advocates say can be used to punish departmental dissenters. But two
researchers are trying -- through data-based definitions and metrics -- to
sanitize collegiality enough for it to be a viable, fourth criterion in
personnel decisions.

Cipriano and his colleague, Richard Riccardi, director of Southern
Connecticut State’s Office of Management Information and Research, have
conducted several studies and written numerous articles about how
department chairs deal with their jobs, including difficult
personalities. Some 83 percent of department chairs in their current,
national study of 528 chairs reported having or having had an uncivil or
non-collegial professor in their department; in another, earlier study
of 451 chairs, 79 percent said they would be in favor of having
collegiality as a criterion for tenure and promotion if there was an
“objective, validated tool” for assessing collegial behavior.

Clearly, Riccardi said, collegiality matters -- an idea outside research supports. Belonging to a collegial department figured higher in
faculty satisfaction than did work and family policies, clear tenure policies and compensation, according to one cited study. Having just one “slacker or jerk” in the group can bring down the team’s overall performance by up to 40 percent, according to another.

Fostering a culture of productive dissent means first developing
operational definitions of collegiality and civility -- lest they be
subject to the “I know it when I see it” test, coined by U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Potter Stewart in reference to the hard-core pornography
at issue in Jacobellis v. Ohio in 1964, Cipriano joked. As an
adjective, “ 'collegial' indicates the way a group of colleagues take
collective responsibility for their work together with minimal
supervision from above.” Civility indicates politeness and courtesy,
demonstrated by collaboration, speaking in a professional and respectful
manner toward others and “stepping up” when needed, among other similar
traits.